CAPTAIN SAMS
I was not even expecting to be able to band today due to a rainy forecast however as it often happens, the offshore rain mostly dissipated as it came ashore. We dodged a couple of rain showers throughout the morning but was able to keep the nets open and got in a full morning of banding. It was a good thing too because it was another busy day with 221 new birds and 10 recaptures of 17 species. The 99 Common Yellowthroats that we banded put us over the 1000 mark for the season and its not even October yet! American Redstarts and Cape May Warblers were also on the move last night as we banded 40 and 25 of them, respectively.
Cape May Warbler
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-Aaron
LITTLE BEAR
With 132 new bands put out and 5 recaptures resulting in a capture rate of 175.6 birds it was a wild day at Little Bear; and that was even before the down pours that forced us to close for the day!
There are days where we have the luxury of taking our time to appreciate the beautiful birds that visit us, but today the sheer volume of birds forced us to prioritize processing to make sure that birds would be quickly released. Fortunately despite the general rush, Liz was able to get these lovely pictures of a hatch-year Northern Parula and since these warblers have a special place in my heart I thought I would post on this species.
A few angles of a lovely hatch-year male Northern Parula.
Northern Parula's are delicate, yet stoutly built little warblers that are somewhat well-known for their habit of constructing their nests in epiphytes; organisms, typically plants, mosses and lichens that live on the surface of trees without harming the trees themselves. These are typically Spanish Moss in the South and Old Man's Beard in the Northwoods though they can make do where both of these are absent. That being said these types of nesting substrates are definitely important as air pollution that has stifled the growth of epiphytes in parts of the Northeast like Massachusetts and New Jersey have been associated with population decline and even extirpation of Northern Paula's breeding in these areas of the country.
One of the first bird nests that I remember finding, and probably the most vivid in my mind as a child was a Northern Parula nest near a cabin my family was staying in in far northwestern Maine. The nest was well hidden in one of the innumerable clumps of Old Man's Beard that carpeted the spruces along the driveway. I would never have found the nest if it weren't for the bustle of activity around it as I believe the young were nearing fledgling age and thus required extensive provisioning by the parents, leading me (literally) to that particular clump of lichen with, as Harrison writes in Wood Warbler's World, a "tennis ball" at its end. This is one of the most vulnerable times for nesting birds as it is at this point that the nest is most easily detected, and right at the point when the parents are maximally invested in it! Harrison wrote that on Mount Desert Island, in the state of Maine, many nests were torn open by what he believed were Red Squirrels. While in South Carolina these infamous nest raiders are generally absent, but many other nest predators abound so it is well that the parula take such pains in concealing the nest.
In the South Carolina Low Country Northern Parulas have a particular fondness for cypress swamps and outside of the breeding season winter in the Caribbean and a portion of Mexico and Central America centered around the Yucatan This species often specializes in foraging on the tips of tree branches and can often be seen hovering around or probing the most exposed edges of tree branches regardless of forest type.
Very exciting time to be in the field. Hoping for continued strong flights of birds and maybe a few vagrants if we are lucky. Fingers crossed!
-Jeremiah
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
"Traill's" Flycatcher | - | - | 1 | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 2 | 1 | - | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 6 | 1 | 1 | - |
Gray Catbird | 7 | - | 5 | - |
Brown Thrasher | - | 1 | - | - |
Veery | 1 | - | - | - |
Ovenbird | 4 | 1 | 2 | - |
Northern Watherthrush | 14 | - | 5 | - |
Black-and-White Warbler | 2 | - | 1 | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 99 | 2 | 70 | 2 |
American Redstart | 40 | 1 | 9 | - |
Cape May Warbler | 25 | - | 5 | - |
Northern Parula | 3 | - | 1 | - |
Magnolia Warbler | 3 | - | - | - |
Yellow Warbler | - | - | 1 | - |
Black-throated Blue Warbler | 9 | - | - | - |
Palm Warbler (Western) | 4 | - | 23 | - |
Prairie Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | - | - | - | 1 |
| Indigo Bunting | - | - | 3 | - |
| Painted Bunting | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 221 | 132 | 353 |
| # of Recaptures | 10 | 5 | 15 |
| # of Species | 17 | 15 | 21 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 201.6 | 78.0 | 279.6 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 114.6 | 175.6 | 131.6 |
| # of Nets | 32 | 28 | - |
| 2025 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sams | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 2,200 | 1,292 | 3,492 |
| # of Recaptures | 281 | 260 | 541 |
| # of Species | 57 | 50 | 66 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 6,812.8 | 4,586.2 | 11,399.0 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 36.4 | 33.8 | 35.4 |
| # of Days | 44 | 37 |
Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)Michael Gamble (CS)
Liz Held (LB)
Camille Beckwith (LB)
Jeremiah Sullivan (LB)
Amy Nickerson (CS)
Note: All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.